We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Louise Mcevoy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Louise, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I was working with a friend who saw me as a mountaineer and an executive… so “The Climbing Executive” became the official name. At first, it seemed odd, but it’s exactly me – I climb and I’m an executive in the IT industry.

Louise, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The Climbing Executive was built as a unique brand identifier, to differentiate me, Louise McEvoy, from other ‘Everest’ speakers. I am one of the few successful Everest mountaineers to reach the summit without sponsorship. I also trained for the mountain in my personal time, often waking up before dawn to exercise for hours before her busy workday began.

I have taken lessons from my quest to achieve my own personal successes and applied them to empowering and motivating audiences to reach their own ‘summits’ – whether as a team, or as individuals. I use my journey to the summit of Mount Everest and the world’s highest mountains, as a powerful example of how to overcome life’s challenges.

With a passion for empowering individuals and teams, I also co-leads groups of women on their first ‘14er’ – a mountain over 14,000 feet which combines my life passions.

I am dedicated to helping others reach their ‘summit’ and have spoken to more than 100 groups and organizations on five different continents, demonstrating that sometimes the hardest things in life are also the most fulfilling.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I spend a lot of time in the mountains and each time, I learn a lesson that I apply to my business and everyday life. Some of the lessons are extreme, which makes them that much more memorable!

I was climbing from Camp 2 to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face, on the way to the summit of Mt. Everest; I was already 5.5 weeks on the mountain, I was tired, and I got a very bad chest cold and I got the “Khumbu cough” and pulled two ribs from coughing. I was hurting and miserable. While climbing the Lhotse Face – a very steep part of the climb, I had to kick in with my crampons on blue ice (which is very tough), then lift my ascender device to get higher on the rope. Each time, I lifted my arm, my ribs hurt. I dreaded the motion. There was so much dread.

I decided to change my mindset. Instead, I was going to accept the pain and move on, because the only way to get to the summit of Everest, was to continue moving up…to do so, I had to move the ascender device above me, which meant pain in my ribs. But, by accepting the pain and moving forward, my focus changed to achieving my climb and not obsessing about the pain I was in.

I’ll never forget that moment on the Face, where I was mentally able to shift my focus to something more productive. We all have the ability to change our mindset to be strong. Even while doing the hardest climbing, in one of the toughest environments on earth. :)

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The book that changed my life (and probably many others) is Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer. That story made me realize that everyday people – like me – can take on big challenges (Mt. Everest, anyone?) and make the summit of whatever your dream is. I never knew mountaineering existed until that book. I never knew I could be a mountaineer. That book inspired me to see Everest in real life (I trekked to Base Camp in 2024), then to climb the mountain (2018 summit).

A business book that I reference frequently is “Blue Ocean Strategy”; about creating markets where your competition isn’t.

It’s shifting your thinking to get away from a crowded market space; go where there are many customers, but little competition. It means doing things in unique ways. I have a mantra on my team “add a blue to everything you do”; meaning, even if we’re doing something in a traditional way, come up with something unique in the process.

This book expanded my mindset to constantly be thinking unique, untapped and innovative. I enjoy where it’s taken me in business and life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theclimbingexecutive.com
• Instagram: @TheClimbingExecutive

Image Credits

Profile picture: by Laura Bravo Mertz, Solifoto Studio